Azerbaijan: Moscow Murder Investigation Stokes Anti-Russian Sentiment

Public anger is building in Azerbaijan over Russia’s rough treatment of an ethnic Azeri accused of murder. The incident likely will scuttle any chance, however remote, that Baku will join the Moscow-led Customs Union.

On October 16, a 31-year-old Azerbaijani citizen, Orhan Zeynalov, was arrested in Moscow for the murder of Russian Egor Sherbakov after an alleged street altercation in the Russian capital’s Biryulevo District. Russian TV channels broadcast reports showing masked police officers beating and humiliating Zeynalov before dragging him, for unknown reasons, into the office of Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokotsev.